Oppenheimer Casing Company, a Corporation

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 7, 1939

13 N.L.R.B. 500 (N.L.R.B. 1939)

In the Matter Of OPPENHEIMER CASING COMPANY, A CORPORATION and
UNITED PACKINGHOUSE WORKERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL No. 75, THROUGH
PACKINGHOUSE WORKERS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE , AFFILIATED WITH
THE CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS
Case No. R-1353.-Decided July 7, 1939
Sausage Casing Industry-Investigation of Representatives : controversy con-
cerning representation of employees : rival organizations ; employer 's refusal to
recognize petitioning union as exclusive bargaining agent ; disagreemeht as to
appropriate unit or units-Contract : covering one of two departments ; bargain-
ing relations established will not be disturbed-Unit Appropriate for Collective
Bargaining : all production employees in the sewing department , excluding fore-
men, assistant foremen, administrative. supervisory, clerical, and office employees,
watchmen , deliverymen, and truck drivers and their assistants ; controversy as to
whether the sewing and casing departments constitute separate units or a single
unit ; appropriate units for the present differ from appropriate unit to be estab-
lished when contract expires-Representatives : proof of choice : comparison of
union membership cards with pay roll-Certification of Representatives: upon
proof of majority representation.
Mr. Stephen Al. Reynolds, for the Board.
Levinson, Becker, Peebles d Swiren, by Mr. Mao Swiren, of Chi-
cago, Ill., for the Company.
Mr. John J. Brownlee, of Chicago, Ill., for the United.
Mr. Joseph S. Sullivan, of Chicago, Ill., for the Amalgamated.
Mr. William Strong, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On December 13, 1938, United Packinghouse Workers Industrial
Union, through Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee, affili-
ated with C. I. O., filed with the Regional Director for the Thirteenth
Region (Chicago, Illinois) a petition alleging that a question affecting
commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of
Oppenheimer Casing Company, a corporation, Chicago, Illinois,
herein called the Company, and requesting an investigation and cer-
tification of representatives pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called the Act. On March
13 N. L. R. B., No. 57.
500
OPPENHEIMER CASING COMPANY 501
14,1939, the National Labor Relations Board, herein called the Board,
acting pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the Act and Article III, Section
3, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series
1, as amended, ordered an investigation and authorized. the Regional
Director to conduct it and to provide for an appropriate hearing upon
due notice.
On March 21, 1939, an amended petition, designating the petitioner
as United Packinghouse Workers of America, Local No. 75, herein
called the United, was filed and the Regional Director issued a notice
of hearing, copies of which were duly served upon the Company, the
United, and Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen of North
America, Local 116, herein called the Amalgamated, a labor organiza-
tion claiming to represent employees directly affected by the investi-
gation. Pursuant to the notice and subsequent postponement, a hear-
ing was held on April 13 and 14, 1939, at Chicago, Illinois, before
William P. Webb, the Trial Examiner duly designated by the Board.
The Board, the Company, and the Amalgamated were represented by
counsel, and the United by a representative; all participated in the
hearing. Full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine
witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues was afforded
all parties. During the course of the hearing the Trial Examiner
made several rulings on motions and on objections to the admission of
evidence. The Board has reviewed the rulings of the Trial Examiner
and finds that no prejudicial errors were committed. The rulings are
hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Oppenheimer Casing Company is a Delaware corporation engaged
in the processing, sale, and distribution of sausage casings. The Com-
pany has numerous processing plants and sales offices throughout the
United States.
The processing plant involved in this proceeding is situated in
Chicago, Illinois, and is designated as plant No. 5. It comprises two
production departments, each one a separate floor , known as the
casing department and the sewing department, respectively. During
the calendar year 1938, raw materials of the approximate value of
$134,000 were purchased for the casing department and of the ap-
proximate value of $150,000 for the sewing department. Approxi-
mately 90 per cent of the former and 75 per cent of the latter raw
materials were purchased outside the State of Illinois. During that
same year , 87 per cent of the finished products of the casing depart-
187930-39-vol. 13--33
502 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ment and 82 per cent of the finished products of the sewing depart-
ment were shipped to points outside Illinois.
H. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
United Packinghouse Workers of America, Local No. 75, is a
labor organization affiliated through Packinghouse Workers Or-
ganizing Committee, with the Congress of Industrial Organizations,
Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen of North America,
Local 116, is a labor organization affiliated with the American Fed-
eration of Labor. Both labor organizations admit to membership all
employees of the Company, excluding foremen, assistant foremen,
clerical and supervisory employees, and truck drivers.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Since the latter part of October 1938, the United, on numerous
occasions, has requested the Company to bargain with it as exclusive
representative of employees of the Company within a unit compris-
ing both departments of plant No. 5. The Company has refused to
recognize the United as the sole collective bargaining agent of em-
ployees in both departments, contending that the departments con-
stitute separate units. It is willing to recognize the United as the
sole collective bargaining agent of employees in the sewing depart-
ment alone.
On October 27, 1938, the Company and the Amalgamated entered
into an agreement, to expire September 30, 1939, whereby the Amal-
gamated is recognized as the sole bargaining agent of employees in
the casing department. The Amalgamated agrees with the Company
that the two departments constitute separate bargaining units.
We find that a question has arisen concerning representation of
employees of the Company.
1V. THE EFFECT OF THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION UPON
COMMERCE
We find that the question concerning representation which has
arisen, occurring in connection with the operations of the Company
described in Section I above, has a close, intimate, and substantial
relation to trade, traffic, and commerce among the several States, and
tends to lead to labor disputes burdening and obstructing commerce
and the free flow of commerce.
V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
All parties agree that the Company's production employees, ex-
cluding foremen , assistant foremen, administrative, supervisory,
OPPENHEIMER CASING COMPANY 503
clerical, and office employees, watchmen, delivery men, and truck
drivers and their assistants, are properly included in the bargaining
unit or units. The sole question for our determination is whether
the two departments should comprise a single unit, as contended by
the United, or whether they should constitute separate units, as con-
tended by the Company and the Amalgamated.
A. Origin and function of the sewing department
For its production of sausage casings the Company purchases vis-
cera and bungs 1 of hogs, beef, and other animals. It is required to
purchase bungs in barrel lots, without choice as to size. Years ago,
the market for casings of a small size disappeared. Faced with a loss
on small bungs, still, perforce, purchased by it in lots with larger
sizes, but no longer commercially usable, it adopted a method of sew-
ing pieces together to produce casings of commercial size. There-
after, the plant's production, which had previously been carried on
by the casing department alone, was divided between the casing de-
partment and the newly established sewing department.
Notwithstanding certain factors urged by the Company and the
Amalgamated in support of their view that the two departments
properly constitute separate units, we believe that the principal dif-
ference between the casing department and the sewing department
is that they occupy separate floors of the plant and that the latter, in
addition to processing raw materials, as does the former, sews such
materials together into casings of salable size. We think that, al-
though in the absence of organization of employees in the other de-
partment the employees of either might effectively bargain with the
Company, the employees of the entire plant could most effectively
bargain as a single unit.
B. The contract with the Amalgamated
On October 27, 1938, as has been stated, the Company and the
Amalgamated entered into a contract constituting the latter the sole
bargaining agent of employees of the casing department. At the time
of the execution of the contract, the Amalgamated exhibited proof
that it had been designated as bargaining agent by a majority of
the employees in that department. Some time prior to the execution
of the contract, an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor and
of the Amalgamated had sought unsuccessfully to bargain with the
Company upon a plant-wide basis. It was not shown, however, that
the Amalgamated or its affiliate ever represented a majority of the
I As used in the record, the term "bung" refers to the lower extremity of the intestines
of livestock.
504 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
employees of the sewing department or of the plant as a whole. The
United, too, had begun organizing the plant prior to the execution of
the contract. On the day preceding such execution, it recruited a sub-
stantial number of members among the employees. It made no de-
mands upon the Company, however, until after the Company had
recognized the Amalgamated. Where some but not all of the em-
ployees of an employer have organized for the purposes enumerated
in the Act, we have sometimes held, in order to insure such em-
ployees the full benefits of their rights under the Act, that a unit
smaller than that which we consider most effective, is appropriate
for the purposes of collective bargaining.2 Under the circumstances
of this case, the Company and the Amalgamated may reasonably have
assumed, at the time they contracted, that a unit consisting of the
casing department, alone, was appropriate. We think the bargaining
relations established under the contract should not be disturbed dur-
ing its term.
C. Conclusions regarding the appropriate unit
Having determined that the contract with the Amalgamated covers
a bargaining unit which may, at the time the contract was executed,
have been appropriate and that, therefore, the relations established
under the contract should not now be disturbed, we shall, for the
present, exclude the employees covered by the contract from the unit
for which representatives are to be determined in this proceeding.
We find, therefore, that the production employees of the Company
in the sewing department of its plant No. 5, Chicago, Illinois, ex-
cluding foremen, assistant foremen, administrative, supervisory, cler-
ical, and office employees, watchmen, delivery men, and truck drivers
and their assistants, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes
of collective bargaining, and that said unit will insure to said em-
ployees of the Company the full benefit of their right to self-organi-
zation and to collective bargaining, and otherwise effectuate the
policies of the Act.
At the time of the hearing, as distinguished from the time when
the contract was entered into, employee self-organization had pro-
gressed to the point where a majority of the production employees
of the entire plant, and of each of its two departments, had desig-
nated bargaining representatives. But for the existence of the con-
tract with the Amalgamated we would, therefore, find that a unit
comprising both departments is now appropriate. In the light of
the record we shall not require the filing of another petition at or
2 See Matter of Gulf Oil Corporation and International Brotherhood of Boilermakers,
Iron Shipbuilders, Welders c6 Helpers of Amerioa , 4 N. L. R. B. 133.
OPPENHEIMER CASING COMPANY 505
near the expiration of the contract on September 30, 1939. Upon
receipt of a request by the United, we shall direct the Regional Di-
rector to continue his investigation and to provide for a further
hearing during the first part of August 1939. Upon the basis of
such further hearing we shall again consider the question concerning
representation. In so doing, we shall disregard any collective bar-
gaining agreement entered into by the Company for a term extending
beyond September 30, 1939.8
VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
Comparison of 85 signed membership cards introduced in evidence
by the United, and authenticated by witnesses, with the Company's
pay rolls, in evidence, indicates that 52 out of 55 persons who on
October 22, 1938, were in the unit found appropriate, and 39 out of
40 persons who were in such unit on April 8, 1939, have designated
the United as their representative for the purposes of collective
bargaining.
We find that the United has been designated and selected by a
majority of the employees in the appropriate unit as their repre-
sentative for the purposes of collective bargaining. It is, therefore,
the exclusive representative of all the employees in said unit for the
purposes of collective bargaining, and we shall so certify.
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire
record in the case, the Board makes the following :
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the rep-
resentation of employees of Oppenheimer Casing Company, a corpo-
ration, Chicago, Illinois, at its plant No. 5, within the meaning of
Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the National Labor Re-
lations Act.
2. All production employees of the Company in the sewing de-
partment of its plant No. 5, Chicago, Illinois, excluding foremen, as-
sistant foremen, administrative, supervisory, clerical, and office em-
ployees, watchmen, delivery men, and truck drivers and their
assistants, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the National
Labor Relations Act.
8Matter of Hirsch Shirt Corporation and United Garment Workers of America ( apili-
ated with the A. F. of L.), etc., 12 N. L. R. B . 553; Matter of Rils Manufacturing
Corp. and United Electrical, Radio t Machine Workers of America ( C. I. 0.), etc.,
11 N. L. R. B. 696 ; Matter of California Wool Scouring Company and Textile Work-
ers Organizing Committee , 5 N. L. R . B. 782; Matter of Wilmington Transportation
Company and Inland Boatmen's Union of the Pacific , San Pedro Division, 4 N. L. R . B. 750.
506 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
3. United Packinghouse Workers of America, Local No. 75, affili-
ated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations is the exclusive
representative of all the employees in said unit for the purposes of
collective bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (a) of the
National Labor Relations Act.
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1, as amended,
IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that the United Packinghouse Workers of
America, Local No. 75, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial
Organizations, has been designated and selected by a majority of all
the production employees of Oppenheimer Casing Company, a cor-
poration, in the sewing department of its plant No. 5, Chicago, Illi-
nois, excluding foremen, assistant foremen, administrative, super-
visory, clerical, and office employees, watchmen, delivery men, and
truck drivers and their assistants, as their representative for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining, and that, pursuant to the provisions
of Section 9 (a) of the Act, United Packinghouse Workers of Amer-
ica, Local No. 75, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organiza-
tions, is the exclusive representative of all such employees for the
purpose of collective bargaining in respect to rates of pay, wages,
hours of employment, and other conditions of employment.
MR. WILLIAM M. LEIsERsoN took no part in the consideration of the
above Decision and Certification of Representatives.